Ghosts in the machine

the long version

"Looking back on a century that witnessed the emergence of motion pictures to become, almost immediately, a dominant cultural force in our lives, this penetrating and provocative book argues that "movies (like cathedrals) cannot help but display the subconscious impulses of our society." From D. W. Griffith to the Marx Brothers to film noir to I Married a Monster from Outer Space, "what are conceived and consumed as innocent pop movies...are in fact manifestations of wild horror, superstitious ignorance, fatalistic dread and bigoted savagery."". "To explain and support his thesis Michael Atkinson turns his gaze on movies that are rarely subject to the rigorous kind of analysis he provides. Films often considered pure, and sometimes even mindless, entertainment are actually, he demonstrates, far more than that. The modern equivalent of folktales, they give us welcome opportunities to take our suppressed anger, fears and anxieties out for "a wee stretch of the legs." We the audience are the ghosts that haunt the movie machine."--BOOK JACKET.